After years of hope, discussion and speculation that a Women's Pinball Championship could be organised in Australia, we finally receive word that yes, it's on, and it's on soon!
Naiomi Goodwin - current number 1 Australian women's pinball player.
Announced via the popular Aussie Arcade forum, Jason Lambert - one of Australia's greatest pinball players and tournament organisers - has detailed the inaugural tournament structure:
Introducing the FIRST EVER Australian Women's Pinball Championship.
This event will be a part of the 2017 TZ Cooly Pinball Classic, to be held at Timezone Coolangatta on Friday 31st March.
AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP
Players will be able to pre-register or register on the night from 6pm.
Qualifying will start from 6.30pm, and we may consider late arrivals to join in until around 7pm.
Qualifying:
* All players will play 10 games (5 machines, 2 games on each), with scoring on each machine to be ranked highest to lowest.
* Points will be awarded for each game 100/99/98... etc.
* The top 4 points winners will advance to the finals (may go to Top 8 depending number of entrants)
* Ties for 4th place will be broken by a single game playoff on a machine chosen at random
Finals: (if Top 4)
* Top 4 players will play all 5 machines in a group of 4. IFPA Match play points will be awarded for each game (7/5/3/1)
* The winner will be the player with the most points won during finals. Ties for any placings will be broken by a single game playoff on a machine chosen at random.
Finals: (if Top 8)
* Top 8 players will be split into 2 groups of 4 according to their qualifying placing. Groups will be split as follows - seeds 1,2,7,8 and seeds 3,4,5,6.
* Each group will play 3 games using the IFPA Match Play scoring (7/5/3/1). Top 2 point scorers in each group will advance to the next round.
* Final group of 4 players will play a further 5 games together, continuing with the IFPA Match Play scoring. Points will NOT carry over.
* The winner will be the player with the most points during the final round of 5 games. Ties for any placings will be broken by a single playoff on a machine chosen at random.
Cost: $20 per player
As mentioned, players can pre-register and supply payment through the banking details to be listed above soon.
We have been looking at running this event for some time now, and we are pleased and very excited that this Women's Championship is coming to life. We all hope to see the best of Women's pinball on the Gold Coast at the end of March and see who will become Australia's first Women's Pinball Champion
You can register here, via PM or via email dj_j2008@hotmail.com
Cheers,
Peter, Hollie & Lambo
Game the System is a keen supporter of diversity in pinball and would like to thank Jason, Peter and Hollie for taking the initiative and putting in the work to make this championship a reality. Just recently Game the System made a contribution to the 2017 IFPA Women's World Pinball Championships scheduled for March 16th in Texas USA. We also look forward to providing as much support as possible for the first Australian Women's Championship.
We contacted Naiomi Goodwin - Australia's current women's number 1 pinball player - and asked her thoughts on this exciting development;
"I think it's a pretty exciting opportunity to encourage women to play competitive pinball and I'm pumped to go head to head with the best ladies in the country. I also appreciate that the male dominant nature of pinball can be intimidating for some women and an event like this may encourage more women to give it a go and hopefully eventually feel comfortable enough to transition into main comps. Personally I love playing against the guys but I'd also love to see more women in pinball and if an event like this can coax more women into pinball then I'm all for it!"
I would suggest going to the Aussie Arcade forum here to keep track of any announcement or up to date information. There is also information in the same forum regarding the other tournaments scheduled for the same time, with a total of five tournaments held over the three days!